The son of a minister, de Hartog ran away to sea twice in his boyhood. Later, after attending the Netherlands Naval College, he went back to sea as a sailor. During this time he wrote detective stories and then a popular novel about tugboat crews titled "Holland's Glory". During the Nazi occupation he found sanctuary in a house in Amsterdam. After the war he moved to England, began to write in English, and turned out a number of novels, some of which were filmed: The Spiral Road (1962) with Rock Hudson, "The Inspector" with Stephen Boyd (released under the title Lisa (1962)), and "Stella" with William Holden and Sophia Loren (released as The Key (1958)).

In 1951 his play, "The Fourposter", became a major Broadway success starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. A movie version followed with Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer and then Broadway musicalized it as "I Do! I Do!" with Robert Preston and Mary Martin. De Hartog was briefly married as a young man in Holland. In England, in 1946, he married Angela Priestley, daughter of J.B. Priestley. In 1961 he married Marjorie Mein (who had earlier served as production secretary to Michael Powell on The Red Shoes) with whom he lived in Houston, Texas, during his later years. Two children from the first marriage, Sylvia and Arnold, still live in the Netherlands. Two children from the second marriage, Catherine and Nicholas, still live in England. With his third wife de Hartog adopted two Korean girls, Eva Kim and Julia Kim, who live in America.

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Jan de Hartog

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